Trading boots for books

After serving eight years in the U.S. Army, Maribel Ramos went from serving on the front lines to sitting quietly in the front row of crowded lecture halls.

Ramos, 36, is now pursuing her bachelor's degree in criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton. It's not the same challenge as her work as an airborne paratrooper, but the transition has nevertheless been difficult and at times painful, she said.

She went through months of counseling to ease the emotional pain caused by her time serving in Iraq and South Korea. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and found she was both angry and numb in the months following her return.

"I had to learn who I was all over again," Ramos said.

Ramos spoke freely about her transition as she sat next to six other women overcoming similar struggles at the recent Women Veterans in Higher Education Conference at CSUF. The conference introduced the women to counselors and educators in order to improve gender-specific services at community colleges and universities.

"More and more, we're becoming aware of the needs of these students," said Christina Boglione, manager of the Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success at National University. "It's taken a long time for us to realize this because it's such a male-dominated service."

Boglione and other education professionals took part in the conference to learn more about the issues that will affect female veterans down the line, especially as more women experience combat abroad. Speakers highlighted issues such as military sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, which are both more common among female veterans than among their male counterparts, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Female veterans may be struggling to get used to civilian life, but you wouldn't know it by their academic performance. According to Veterans Affairs, female veterans are more likely to have a bachelor's degree than their non-veteran counterparts. They're also more likely than non-veteran women to have jobs – and higher paying jobs, too.

"I frequently hear from women veterans that they had to work hard to 'prove themselves' during their service," said Catherine Ward, program coordinator for the Veteran Student Services center at CSUF. "I think that strong work ethic stays with many of them and is evidenced in their school and career performance."

Many of the women at the conference attributed their success in school to their time in the military. Rachel Moreno served in the Navy from 2005 to 2013 and served in Kuwait and Iraq for 10 months. When she returned in 2008, her civilian job had been eliminated and she struggled to find a replacement.

"I begged my (executive officer) to put me in another deployment," she said during the conference. "But he said no. He told me to go back to school, give it a year, and if I still didn't like it, to come back and see him."

Moreno enrolled in classes at CSUF and is now in her third year. She also has a job as a materials specialist at Boeing Satellites in El Segundo.

"I never went back to his office," she said. "Had he not given me that talk and made me go back to school I'd probably be on my third tour with no education."

When asked what could be done to better serve female veterans on college campuses, Ramos said that what worked for her was simply talking about her anxiety with people who understood. It's why the counseling and programs at CSUF's Veterans Student Services center deserve recognition and support, she said.

"You can't do it alone," Ramos said of her transition into civilian life. "There's a big population of veterans coming out now. And now is the time to be aware of how to serve them."

The Women Veterans in Higher Education Conference was jointly coordinated by CSUF's Veterans Student Service, WoMen's Center and counseling department; and Citrus College and National University.